The Surratt Courier

[Anita]

[quote='wpbinzel' pid='87635' dateline='1695000772']
Los Angeles Civil War Round table
HOMEPRESENTATIONSJOIN USRESOURCES
ABOUTCONTACT
BACK TO ALL EVENTS
Mary Surratt — Innocent or Guilty?
Tuesday, September 19, 2023
19:00 21:00
Online via Zoom
(map)
Mary Surratt — Innocent or Guilty?
In 1865, Mary Surratt was tried, and convicted by a military tribunal, as a conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and was hanged—thus becoming the first woman ever to be executed by the federal government. Those events remain controversial to this day. Who was Mrs. Surratt? What was her role? Why was she charged as a conspirator, and tried by a military tribunal? Was she innocent, or guilty? Attend our meeting, and Bill Binzel will answer these questions, and more.
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Bill, I read Laurie's outstanding article in the Surratt Courier and am looking forward to your presentation. I went to the site and found this. "Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are meeting via Zoom. If you would like to attend a meeting, please send a request for a Zoom meeting invitation to: lacwrt.media@gmail.com."
I'm assuming your presentation is at the monthly meeting. I sent a request. Hope to get a reply.

[wpbinzel]

Anita - Thanks! And you should be able to access the meeting at 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time (U.S.) at Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87954659535

[Wesley Harris]

(09-15-2023 01:17 PM)Dennis Urban Wrote:  [quote='wpbinzel' pid='87543' dateline='1693528374']

but the Joint County Commission that owns the Museum has decided to go in a different direction away from the relevance of the House in the saga of Lincoln's assassination,

So what is the "different direction"? Has the Museum completely abolished any sense of cooperation with us assassination types?

[Dennis Urban]

(09-17-2023 08:32 PM)wpbinzel Wrote:  Los Angeles Civil War Round table
HOMEPRESENTATIONSJOIN USRESOURCES
ABOUTCONTACT
BACK TO ALL EVENTS
Mary Surratt — Innocent or Guilty?
Tuesday, September 19, 2023
19:00 21:00
Online via Zoom
(map)
Mary Surratt — Innocent or Guilty?
In 1865, Mary Surratt was tried, and convicted by a military tribunal, as a conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and was hanged—thus becoming the first woman ever to be executed by the federal government. Those events remain controversial to this day. Who was Mrs. Surratt? What was her role? Why was she charged as a conspirator, and tried by a military tribunal? Was she innocent, or guilty? Attend our meeting, and Bill Binzel will answer these questions, and more.


William P. Binzel
William P. Binzel is a native of southcentral Ohio, who has resided in the Washington, DC area for more than forty years. A retired attorney, he spent twelve years on the staff of the U.S. House of Representatives, eleven years in the financial services sector with MasterCard International, and ten years as general counsel, and executive vice president, of an educational nonprofit foundation focused on financial literacy. Mr. Binzel’s undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin is in U.S. History. A life-long student of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln, and the Lincoln assassination, Bill is President of the Civil War Round Table of the District of Columbia, and Vice President of the Surratt Society (an organization that supports research into Lincoln’s death and related topics). He is an editor and contributor of articles to The Surratt Courier. He served as historic editor of The North Star – Canada and the Civil War Plots Against Lincoln, published earlier this year by Random House. He is a docent at the Dr. Samuel A. Mudd House Museum near Bryantown, MD; has served as a docent at the Surratt House Museum in Clinton, MD; and is a narrator of the Surratt Society’s extensive tour of the twelve-day escape route of John Wilkes Booth from Ford’s Theatre to the Garrett’s farm in Caroline County, VA.

Bill: Congratulations on a very professionally done presentation. The slides were excellent and informative. The presentation serves as a fine primer for those who are just learning the players in perhaps the most horrendous crime in American history.

A few years ago I was asked to put together a presentation about those participating in the conspiracy with an emphasis on who they were and how they came into the conspiracy. The title of the 50 slide presentation is "Meet the Lincoln Assassination Participants and Players." I chose to concentrate on eight participants and five players. I had to stop somewhere. I've presented this twice, the latest being in February to the Knoxville Civil War Round Table to an audience of about 80. I think my presentation is unique and presents little known facts about the background of the folks and why they were important to the plot and its execution. It would be a fine complimentary presentation to your excellent work.

I hope the Surratt house and museum continues to be a significant stop in the history of the Civil War of Washington City and southern Maryland.

[RJNorton]

For anyone who missed Bill's talk and would like to listen to it here's a link to his presentation:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IA0zx0u...4u7cU/view

[wpbinzel]

The September/October issue of The Surratt Courier has been posted. The previous issue reprinted an article written by Laurie Verge, Mary Surratt: Did She Or Didn’t She?, which references a confrontation between Congressmen John A. Bingham and Benjamin Butler regarding Mrs. Surratt. In this issue, editor Louise Oertly traces the origins of that feud. The direct link to the September/October issue is: https://www.surrattmuseum.org/_files/ugd...767f68.pdf

[Wesley Harris]

Happy a new Surratt Courier is out today. I like to see the articles from way back before I joined the Surratt Society in 2009. It will be my first time reading them. However, we're seeing entire issues of old articles simply because no one is submitting new material.

It's important that research continue. I realize this is not the 2010s when the Surratt Society was going strong and Laurie Verge was receiving more articles than she could fit into a monthly issue. The Society is not the same; the Surratt Museum is not the same. Even this discussion board is not as prolific as it once was.

I'm one to talk, having written much less for the Courier in recent years than I did in the past. I wrote one article a couple of issues back on what some long-time members are researching. We need to keep the networking going. We need to read about what others are doing in their research, what new books are out. We need new material. I encourage anyone who can, please submit articles, member updates, whatever to Louise Oerthy, editor/president. The Courier is vital in keeping this community alive.

[wpbinzel]

The November/December 2023 issue of The Surratt Courier has been posted on the Surratt Society website. This edition explores Mrs. Surratt and the media; mid-nineteenth century journalist George Alfred Townsend (GATH); followed by one of Townsend's newspaper articles on Johnson's "Christmas Pardon." The direct link is: https://www.surrattmuseum.org/_files/ugd...9c06a1.pdf

[Gene C]

Thanks Bill for posting these reminders about the Surratt Courier.
Without your posts I'd be missing some interesting information

Which reminds me, after you've read through this month's Courier, we've done an online discussion of Townsend's book here
https://rogerjnorton.com/LincolnDiscussi...t=Townsend

and, I'm currently reading forum member Robert Summers book, The Assassin's Doctor, and just finished the section on President Johnson'd Pardons.
This is a good book (more on this when I finish reading it)
The Courier articles add a lot to what I've been reading

[wpbinzel]

(12-08-2023 11:26 AM)Gene C Wrote:  Thanks Bill for posting these reminders about the Surratt Courier.
Without your posts I'd be missing some interesting information

Which reminds me, after you've read through this month's Courier, we've done an online discussion of Townsend's book here
https://rogerjnorton.com/LincolnDiscussi...t=Townsend

and, I'm currently reading forum member Robert Summers book, The Assassin's Doctor, and just finished the section on President Johnson'd Pardons.
This is a god book (more on this when I finish reading it)
The Courier articles add a lot to what I've been reading

Thanks, Gene. Because, after the death of Laurie Verge, the Maryland-National Park and Planning Commission made the decision to stop printing and mailing The Surratt Courier, the best we can do is to put it online for all who wish to read. We are working to make the entire inventory of past issues available online as well.

[wpbinzel]

Well, the January/February 2024 issue of The Surratt Courier has been posted (we must have forgot to wind our calendars...), but has information about the current focus of the Surratt House Museum (which is a separate entity from the Surratt Society) and some very interesting perspectives of the authors of Come Retribution. The direct link is https://www.surrattmuseum.org/_files/ugd...066272.pdf .

(Also if you have an interest in the 2024 Surratt Society Annual Meeting and Conference, the details are listed under the "News and Announcements" heading. The meeting is open and free, but you MUST pre-register.)

[wpbinzel]

We encountered some difficulty in getting the March/April 2024 and the May/June 2024 issues of The Surratt Courier posted, but I am pleased to announce that both are now on the Surratt Society website, and are available to all at https://www.surrattmuseum.org/surratt-courier . The focus of the March/April issue is John Wilkes Booth, and the May/June issue is about Mary Lincoln (post-assassination of her husband), and other attempts on the lives of the Presidents. As always, my thanks to Louise Oertly for compiling and editing the issues!

[wpbinzel]

The July/August 2024 Surratt Courier has been posted on the Surratt Society website. We know that Mary, Anna and John, Jr., Surratt moved into the H Street boardinghouse in Washington, D.C., in the Fall of 1864. Who else was residing there?

This issue introduces you to the ladies who boarded or visited there during that fateful month of April in 1865 and their lives afterwards. The direct link is: https://www.surrattmuseum.org/_files/ugd...ce7ac9.pdf

[Gene C]

Great article.
It appears that most of these ladies did not live happily ever after.

I can't remember if Mary did most of the cooking, or did they just order Chinese out a lot?

[wpbinzel]

(08-09-2024 07:15 AM)Gene C Wrote:  Great article.
It appears that most of these ladies did not live happily ever after.

I can't remember if Mary did most of the cooking, or did they just order Chinese out a lot?

No, Mary employed formerly enslaved women who did the cooking.

(And if you are not in on Gene's joke, the façade of the Surratt Boardinghouse on H Street in WDC still stands, and is a Chinese Restaurant, called "The Wok and Roll." You can't make this stuff up....)